Who am I?

Hold on! Let me take a look at one of those motivation letters that we've all written one too many times. You know the ones – they ones that begin with a self-introduction, followed by a few flattering remarks about your life, achievements, and dreams, before finally circling back to the real reason for writing.

So, let me introduce myself! My name is Cosmin, a 24-year-old master's student at the University of Vienna, focusing on Finance and Behavioral Economics within Applied Economics. In parallel, I'm a student at 42 Vienna, where I wrestle with C on a daily basis as I delve deeper into computer science. While Web Development is my current focus, my programming journey began in early 2023 with a course from Andrei Neagoie, building on my previous programming foundation. Currently I'm actively exploring the potential of AR, VR, Fintech, and AI.

Beyond academics, I've recently joined the digital iLab, an innovation and entrepreneurship program. There, alongside with my team, we're embracing the challenge of building a startup. This adds to my prior explorations in digital marketing, e-commerce, business and the startup world.

As for my previous academic background, that is a blend of business and technical skills. I earned a degree in International Business and Economics from FSEGA in Cluj-Napoca, and one in Civil Engineering from the University of Oradea. Since turning 18, I've immersed myself in the digital world. This entrepreneurial spirit led me to launch a few startups and explore digital marketing for several years. I then leveraged my technical skills by working as a SEO Engineer for a US multinational (Yardi), for one year.

Following the pandemic, I decided to take a gap year. During this time, I traveled a bit, embarked on a new journey of self-discovery and found a couple of new passions, such as programming, playing guitar, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, or piloting. Afterwards, I've decided to tackle on a new challenge and move to a new city, Vienna.

Fun Fact

Once, we had to squeeze a bathub through a window so that Jared Leto could take an ice bath before a concert at the Electric Castle festival

Linktree Page with useful resources

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My top 7 books to read

• The Lean Startup - Eric Ries
• Atomic Habits - James Clear
• The Lonely Century - Noreena Hertz
• Breath - James Nestor
• One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• When Breath becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
• Man's Search for Meaning (Victor Frankl)

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Things I'm proud of

• Bringing this website to life
• Writing daily for 500 days (with an average of 1200 words per day)
• Completing the "100 days of coding" challenge (can be seen on my github)
• Running the Vienna Marathon 2024 in 4:29:50
• Surviving the 42 Piscine (one month C bootcamp)
• Winning the Nasa Space Apps Hackathon in 2023
• Joining the digital iLab
• Taking piloting classes
• Quitting social media